My nephew, Luke, had gone on a hunt in Feb to be greeted with a long day of dark to dark hunting for only a couple of geese.
"I think it'd be worth your time to come now," I told Luke over the phone. It was like twisting someones arm to put money in their bank account... "I'll be there," Luke quickly responded.
I also text'd another young man who is bitten badly by the hunting bug, Colton.
"I'll be there for sure," He text'd back, and early the next morning his truck rolled into my driveway.
A quick stop by the Parma fuel and handy mart and we were off to the field.
Luke arrived at the field with his Uncle Jim, and special needs cousin, Kyle.
The geese were roaring in the ponds behind us, usually a good omen.
We raced through the early morning decoy set up and had things ready to go come daylight.
I was really hoping to have a flock or two decoy. It is one thing to shoot a single or a pair, but the thrill of snow goose hunting is to have a flock drop from the bright blue stratosphere, and into the decoys.
The morning dragged by without much excitement. We shot at a few birds but still no flocks.
"Ok boys," I said, "it is getting close to prime decoy time."
The field we hunt is between feeding grounds and resting area ponds. From about noon to three is prime time. The feeding birds are trickling to their resting area ponds. It seems there are always a few flocks that have not fed enough in the morning and are willing to check out our corn field on the way over.
"Peep!" I heard a snow goose from some distance away.
"I hear one," I said to the boys, " look around and see where it is."
"High, way up high above us," I said as soon as I saw the little white dots above us.
"They are locked on our decoys and coming in," I tried to conceal my excitement. "Sit back and enjoy the show."
"Hey, is that a blue? Luke asked.
"It is!" Coloton replied. Colton has the best eyes of the group. I could hardly tell they were birds, but as they dropped near we could all see the blue colored bird with a bright white neck and head.
We have to be very careful that it is a blue goose and not an immature speckle belly, as the season is closed on specks.
All through the morning we had talked about a blue goose. As many snows as I've seen shot in Idaho, I had never seen a real blue. We have harvested quite a few young snows which have a lot of grey feathers, but a real blue has the pure white head and neck.
As the birds dropped and dropped from their incredibly high elevation the boys discussed how they were locked on the blue.
We all enjoyed watching the dark bird in the flock of white.
The birds were in range now. "Take them this time?" whispered the boys.
"No, let's let them make one more pass to be sure they are in good range," I whispered back.
It is so hard to keep letting snow geese circle again and again. Many times we wait for that one more circle only to have the birds fly away never to be seen again.
Hunting Canada Geese the birds drop into the decoys in one or two passes and try to land. Not so with the snows, around and around without loosing very much elevation.
The snows made a big circle around the blind and the decoy spread. "Ok guys, this time. Take them when they come over this time," I whispered as gun barrels poked out the top of the blind.
"Remember to shoot your lanes," I commented as I always do just before we lunge out of the blind to shoot into a flock.
Shooting the lane in front of each hunter seems easy, but is, in fact, very difficult.
In a flock of birds there will always be one that stands out. It is usually the one that is the closest to the blind, or very large. Your eyes are just drawn to that one bird. If a group of hunters do not force themselves to shoot the birds in front of them, closest or not, we find everyone shoots at the one that draws the eye and all the others escape untouched.
"Now! Take them!" I shouted, while rising to shoot. I picked a bird on my far end of the flock and promptly missed all my shots at it.
Jim was faring better on his end of the flock, dropping a few geese.
"Got it! Got it! Got it!" shouted Colton and Luke.
"We got the blue!"They shouted, as they raced out of the blind to retrieve the bird.
I had forgotten all about that blue goose. It had come in the center of the flock right in front of Luke and Colton. Those boys concentrated their shots at it and we had the first real blue goose any of us had ever seen.
Pictures were snapped over and over. The smiles were huge on those two guys faces. I have to admit I was sure proud of them as well.
"Great shooting guys," I told them over and over.
We harvested a few more snows that day, but that blue was certainly the highlight of the day, if not the season.
Now there is talk of getting it mounted. Luke and Colton might have to take turns hanging it on their walls just to be fair. I am very confident that both of the boys it that blue at the same time. It really is a shared treasure.
Our first blue goose
Jim, Kyle, and Luke
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